Solidarity Action for Chabelo !

The Honduras Solidarity Network is asking for your solidarity with Chabelo and the campesino movement in Honduras with an email and phone campaign from Mon 9/1 – Wed 9/3 to demand from The Supreme Court of Honduras that his conviction and sentence be annulled and Chabelo be freed immediately. Email and phone scripts are below the summary. Even if you don’t feel comfortable calling in Spanish you can still send emails!! QUANTITY IS KEY!!

Summary

Jose Isabel “Chabelo” Morales Lopez, 38, is a campesino (peasant farmer). His family is a part of Honduras’ agricultural communities in the Aguán Valley. They live in the heart of the African palm-producing region of the northern coast. He has been in prison for 6 years, and is sentenced to 17.5 years more, for a crime that he did not commit. His arrest and imprisonment are aimed at punishing and criminalizing the campesino movement in Honduras as well as a product of the well-documented corruption and impunity that has Honduras in its grip. This has contributed to its being one of the poorest countries in the region and one of the most violent in the world. Chabelo is recognized as being unjustly imprisoned by numerous human rights and rural advocacy groups inside and outside of Honduras such as, Via Campesina; SOAWatch; FIAN International; the Committee of the Families of the Disappeared and Detained (COFADEH); and the Jesuit institution ERIC-SJ.For a complete summary of Chabelo’s case, please click here: The Case of Jose Isabel “Chabelo” Morales

We are aiming to saturate the Supreme Court with communications on 2 specific targeted dates: Monday September 1st and Wednesday August 3rd. This way the message will be loud and clear that the international community is united in demanding the immediate freedom of Chabelo Morales.

You can send any interesting responses from the Supreme Court to: greg_mccain@yahoo.com

I am writing from______________ (your country and organization, if applicable) to express my concern in the case of Jose Isabel Morales Lopez. First of all, I want to acknowledge the encouraging decision of the judges last year that annulled the judgment of Mr Morales López. Mr. Morales has been seeking justice for 6 years, and this decision has been the first and only light in the long tunnel of injustice. The Criminal Court ordered a new trial, which began in late January 2014.

The trial was marred by the misconduct of the prosecution by the Public Ministry and the prosecutor Jose Reynaldo Canales. In addition, the judges of the Court accepted the perjured testimony of Henry Osorto, Sub-commissioner of the National Police. Because of these serious violations of justice, I am demanding that the Supreme Court, once again annul the conviction and sentence of Jose Isabel Morales and that he be released from prison immediately. And no more trials!

I ask that those of you in the Criminal Division do everything you can to expedite the process. Delayed justice is a denial of the rights of Mr. Morales. The international community will follow the case of Jose Isabel Morales and look forward to hearing your freedom.

Sincerely,

Script para llamadas (please feel free to put it into your own words)

(Please call the numbers in descending order until you reach someone. The first is the most important as it goes directly to the office of one of the judges considering the case. If they are attempting to cut you short, at the least try to say the statement that is in bold below)